Thursday 9 September 2010

Random Stuff

Sorting out the 4Gb of pictures that were still on the memory card of my camera - most were rubbish; some have been posted before; some are irrelevant (a picture of Fairlop tube station !?!) and some are interesting, but did not seem to relate to any particular subject or were part of an ill fated post that was never completed.
These have been collated into a kind of miscellaneous post:
Grasshoppers: Despite their difference colours, these two are possibly 'common green grasshoppers', which aren't always green, they can also be grey or brown. Seen in the Ock meadows in August.
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Radley Brook: Whilst waiting for the previously mentioned water vole to make an appearance (or not as the case may be), there are plenty of other things to see, including a sparrowhawk.  One of the four birds of prey that can seen in the area (buzzard, red kite and kestrel being the others, it is an objective of this blog to get decent pictures of all of them).
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Orange Balsam, is a relative to the dreaded to himalayan balsam and is also an introduced plant that has escaped into the wild.  But unlike it's relative it is not as invasive and is rather attractive:
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Dragonfly: A photograph of this particular dragonfly has appeared elsewhere in this blog, but in retrospect, I prefer this picture:
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Wytham Woods: This rather impressive bracket fungus (with less impressive camera focus) in Wytham Woods near Oxford:
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A small toad, also seen in Wytham Woods:
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Managed by the University of Oxford Wildlife Conservation Unit, it has been intention to write a blog post about this fascinating place for a while. But like Sandford Brook, the Cothill Fens and the rivers Stert and Thames, it will have to remain on the list of posts that never seem to get written....

2 comments:

  1. Did you see an article in the papers a few weeks back where a boy in Devon found a pink grasshopper? Apparently there is a genetic mutation that causes this. I've been looking out for one ever since but haven't even seen the normal green kind, only crickets.

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  2. I missed the news story about the pink grasshopper, but did a quick google:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8246902.stm

    I guess brightly coloured genetic mutants are rare, as they would be easier targets for predators.
    Good luck with your quest to find one and let me know if you have success.

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